The capital's hotels rediscovered their appeal during the new year celebrations. Their occupancy rate was 85 to 90% on December 31st, per figures from the Brussels Hotels Association (BHA), produced on Tuesday by La Libre Belgique.
This was confirmed to the Belga press agency.
In a communiqué, the Brussels Hotel and Catering Federation is also delighted by the “bounce back”, reporting a similar occupancy rate for hotels and 56% for the whole of December, compared to 52.3% a year earlier.
In 2015, the November 13th Paris attacks had severely affected both the Paris and Brussels tourist sector.
On New Year's Eve last year, the occupancy rate in hotels across Brussels declined by 64%.
Initial estimates suggest that Brussels tourism has since picked up. Despite the attack carried out in Berlin on December 19th, 2016, 85% to 90% of hotel rooms were occupied on December 31st.
“These results are indeed encouraging, although are still below the 95% occupancy rate seen in 2014 which was an average year,” Rodolphe Van Weyenbergh, the General Secretary of the BHA, tempers.
According to the association, the majority of tourists celebrating the countdown to 2017 in Brussels came from abroad, although many Belgians were also staying in the capital's hotels.
The Brussels Hotel and Catering Federation noted that the majority of tourists came from Germany, the Netherlands and France.
It added that restaurants took advantage of this tourism, which was essentially on hand.
The Brussels Times
